Villa-O space off Knox Dallas to house new restaurant and butcher shop

Villa-O space off Knox Dallas to house new restaurant and butcher shop

Two vastly popular restaurants in the Knox-Henderson district are about to welcome a third sibling.

The new restaurant, still to be named, comes from restaurateur Stephan Courseau and will join a family that includes Le Bilboquet, the French restaurant in Travis Walk that's been such a hit with the Park Cities ladies crowd; and Up On Knox, the recently opened brasserie and brunch phenomenon at the corner of Travis and Knox, in what was once the Chili's space.

Courseau is teaming up with new partner chef Junior Borges to open this new eatery, and they've landed an enviable address: 4514 Travis St., also known as the space that was Villa-O, the longtime Italian restaurant known for brunch and endless mimosas. Villa-O closed in January 2018 after more than a decade in that spot.

The theme will be farm-to-table with a big push on food sourced from local farms, and a menu that's meat-centric with Brazilian influences. Borges originally hails from Rio de Janeiro.

The restaurant will also house an exciting shop and butcher, similar to the bodegas that Borges grew up with, serving to-go fare such as salads and sandwiches, along with foodstuffs such as eggs, produce, and meats. They're already partnered with an East Texas ranch that will provide produce, free-range chicken, and grass-fed beef for the market as well as their restaurants.

They're building an in-house rotisserie where they'll do chicken with potatoes and other sides that people in the rapidly growing neighborhood can pick up for take-out dinner.

"This farm shop will be an exciting amenity for the neighborhood, but also allow shoppers to buy the same grass-fed beef and seasonal vegetables we'll use in all three restaurants," says Corseau, who cites inspirations such as Cochon Butcher in New Orleans and Meat & Cheese in Aspen.

Hoping to create something that looks entirely new for Dallas, they've retained GRT Architects, a Brooklyn firm that just completed work on Don Angie, an Italian restaurant in New York's West Village. They're aiming to open in March 2019.